University of Lincoln to charge £9,000

The University of Lincoln will join the ranks of Oxford and Cambridge in charging £9,000 per year in student tuition fees from 2012.

The Board of Governors at the university agreed to charge £9,000 a year for tuition fees for all full-time, home/EU undergraduates from next year.

The university promised “a strong package of support for students starting in 2012, including scholarships and bursaries,” and support from employers such as Siemens.

University of Lincoln Vice-chancellor Professor Mary Stuart said:

“Lincoln is in the top quartile of all universities for student satisfaction and this decision will allow the University to continue to grow and enhance the student experience for the benefit of all of our community.”

Dan Derricott, Vice-President Academic Affairs at the university’s Students’ Union said the institution is in an “unfortunate position of asking graduates to contribute triple the amount they currently do.”

“We fear that this could be seen through complete withdrawal of state funding or by slashing student numbers, both of which would be devastating for the university and wider society.

“I have written our local MP, Karl McCartney, asking him to represent students in his constituency and to him to reconsider his position on the funding of higher education.”

Samuel Cox (22) studied Media Production at the University of Lincoln for three years and is now undertaking an MA in Digital Imaging and Photography:

“I’m not surprised that the University of Lincoln will charge £9,000 per year, all universities are in the same sticky situation.

“If the University of Lincoln charged anything less, then they could be perceived as being ‘second-rate‘ in comparison to other new universities who charge the maximum amount.”

— Later update: Writing for The Linc, the student newspaper at the university, Jack Dobson-Smith opines: “It’s a flat-out mistake for the University of Lincoln to charge £9,000. Potential students will chose to pay the £9k to a university higher up the league tables, or pay less for one that not far from Lincoln’s dizzying heights.”

So far, most universities are clustering around the £9,000 mark, with the elite institutions leading the way.

The high fees are causing problems for the Government, which has based its future funding of universities on the assumption that most institutions will charge £7,500.

Ministers have warned universities that if the majority set fees at or close to the maximum £9,000, then they will face cuts to funding and student places.

Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, told the Press Association: “When the Government forced these ill-considered plans through Parliament, they claimed that fees above £6,000 would be the exception rather than the rule, but that was quite clearly a pipe dream.

“Ministers have claimed that Offa has the power to regulate fees, when in reality this process is nothing more than one of rubberstamping vice chancellors’ attempts to charge as much as they can get away with. With no one to stop them, universities are rushing to charge the maximum £9,000.”